Do you want to get well?

Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, tells Spirit-filled Christians at the Empowered21 Global Congress to stand up for their faith at the Jerusalem Pais Arena in Israel on Sunday May 24, 2015. | (Photo: The Christian Post/Leonardo Blair)

The enemy of grace, truth, and love desires to paralyze your future through definitions, nomenclatures, and descriptors assigned to you that do not line up with God’s prophetic destiny and purpose for you. In other words, the enemy will paralyze you if you do not have certainty about your identity in Christ! Therefore, you must ask yourself these critical questions:

Who am I?

Am I defined by my past?

Am I defined by my circumstances?

Am I defined by what people say about me?

I have great news from what took place on the cross: Christ defines you.

The things that surround you do not define you.

God’s Spirit inside of you defines you.

Your circumstances do not define you.

His covenant defines you.

The hell you are going through does not define you.

The heaven you are going to defines you.

Your failures do not define you.

His forgiveness defines you.

For all my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram brothers and sisters:

The likes of many do not define you.

The love of One defines you.

And for all the religious folk:

What you do for God does not define you.

What God already did for you—through the cross, empty tomb, Upper Room, His blood, and His Word—defines you!

The Father defines you.

The Son defines you.

The Holy Spirit defines you.

Galatians 2:20 defines you: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

THE IDENTITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

With so many attempting to define us as the body of Christ, it behooves us to ask ourselves the same questions collectively:

Who are we as Christ followers?

Who are we as His church?

Are we just another institution in society?

Are we another religious faith narrative competing in the marketplace of ideas?

Are we a feel-good device for the spiritually impaired?

Are we an antiquated conduit of irrelevant values no longer applicable in the world of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube?

Our response will determine whether light will overcome darkness in our generation. So who are we? With clarity, conviction, and courage we must give the following response:

We are the light of the world.

We are a city on a hill. We are people of the Word.

We are salt and light.

We are prophetic and not pathetic.

We are disciples, witnesses, and Christ followers.

We are evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

We are children of the cross, fruit of the empty tomb, and a product of the Upper Room.

We are the redeemed of the Lord.

We are the sheep of His pasture.

We are forgiven, free, and favored.

We are called and chosen.

We are warriors and worshippers.

We are the righteousness of God.

We are world changers and history makers.

Let me also tell you what we are not. We are not Google, Microsoft, Ford, or even Starbucks. We are the church of Jesus Christ, and the gates of hell shall not, cannot, and will not prevail against us! Hallelujah!

*This article is based on You Are Next: Destroy What Has Paralyzed You and Never Miss Your Moment Again (Charisma House, 2019) by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a bestselling author, pastor, film producer and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the world’s largest Hispanic Christian organization. He was named among the Top 100 Christian Leaders in America by Newsmax in 2018, and Time nominated him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013.

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Hispanic Evangelical Association.